"As far back as early April, Fox News personalities were casting doubt on the number of people who had succumbed to Covid-19. Senior political analyst Brit Hume led the charge, suggesting fatalities in New York City – the worst-hit area in the country – were “inflated” because the city did not “distinguish between those who die with the disease and those who die from it”. Hume retweeted a chart showing that many people who died had pre-existing conditions.

In fact, epidemiologists including Dr Anthony Fauci, the government’s top public health expert, say more people have died from coronavirus than has been reported.

But it’s a struggle to find similar perspectives in the rightwing media upon which many Americans rely.

The list of people pushing the death toll non-scandal reads like a who’s who of conspiracy theorists. Alex Jones, the InfoWars host, is a keen proponent of the concept, as are Diamond and Silk, Trump sycophants recently axed by Fox Nation."

...Have you noticed how Fauci and Brix and the other medical experts have disappeared from White House events? Trump has given up...

"A separate study, published at the end of April, revealed the stark consequences of prominent figures underplaying the impact of Covid-19. A group of researchers tracked the spread of coronavirus among viewers of Sean Hannity’s Fox News show, after Hannity spent weeks downplaying the threat.

“Greater exposure to Hannity,” the researchers wrote, “leads to a greater number of Covid-19 cases and deaths.”